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Scrubby foliage hide the entryway. A sloping wooden tunnel leads down to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And shelves stocked of medical equipment, medications and neat piles of extra garments. Within a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, physicians monitor a display. It shows the flight patterns of enemy surveillance UAVs as they weave in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an underground hospital look at a screen showing enemy kamikaze and surveillance UAVs in the area.

Welcome to Ukraine’s secret below-ground medical facility. This center opened in August and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the frontline and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters below the ground. It’s the most secure method of delivering care to our injured soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Major the chief surgeon.

This medical station handles 30-40 patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or serious abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of enemy FPV drones, which drop explosives with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an era of drones and a different kind of war,” the surgeon said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean installation for caring for injured troops in the eastern region.

During one afternoon last week, three soldiers limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is terrible. My comrade next to me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a another explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. We see UAVs everywhere and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his squad spent 43 days in a forest area close to the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture since last year. The only way to get to their location was by walking. All supplies came by drone: food and water. Seven days following he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a first-person view drone ripped a minor injury in his lower limb.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or any sound,” he explained. “I believe I was lucky to remain alive. A relative has been killed. There are continuous detonations.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, he noted he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the back. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a bed, removed a bloody dressing and cleaned his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to ring his sister. “A fragment of artillery hit me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a several months. After that, to return to my unit. Someone must protect our country,” he said.

Medical staff treat the wounded soldier, who was injured in the dorsal area by a fragment of mortar.

Since 2022, enemy forces has consistently targeted hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from four steel bunkers, with wooden supports, earth and sand laid on top reaching ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram explosive devices released by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which financed the building, plans to build 20 units in all. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- defence minister, the official, declared they would be “critically essential for preserving the lives of our armed forces and supporting defenders on the battlefront.” The company referred to the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken since the enemy's invasion.

An example of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained certain wounded soldiers had to wait many hours or even days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of severely injured casualties who came at 3am. I had to carry out a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “I’ve been medicine for two decades. You have to focus,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a bush. The patient and the other soldiers were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, padded up to the doorway to await the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”